There will be about 250 fewer staff in Edmonton Public Schools next year as the school division prepares to accommodate more than 2,800 new students.
Public school councilors approved a $ 1.2 billion budget on Friday, which they say will lead to larger classes and less support for students with disabilities and additional needs.
Board chair Trisha Estabrooks said it was frustrating to see funding not keep pace with growth and spending at a time when oil revenues are flowing into provincial coffers.
“This provincial government is balancing the budget on the backs of the children of this province at a time when we need investment in future generations. And that is what makes it difficult,” Estabrooks said.
Limited provincial funding and rising utility and transportation costs are pushing more money out of classrooms, Superintendent Darrel Robertson said.
The division plans to return 138 fewer educational assistants to classrooms next year to help students with disabilities.
More than 200 teaching places will also be eliminated as the school division stops offering parallel online classes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Robertson said that in previous years, the division had more room to hire some of these employees in the fall once they saw which children appeared and where. He said much of this space for movement is gone now.
Estabrooks said the cash crisis is the result of three years of a new provincial funding formula that is punishing growing urban school divisions. Even with $ 57 million in additional “bridge” funding to help bridge the gap, the division estimates that there are more than 1,600 full-time students who do not have funding from the Edmonton public, which is the second division. largest school in the province.
Funding is not up to date with enrollment growth, Robertson said. Students will receive the help they need, but staff will be more thin, he said, and the trend is unsustainable.
“It will be impossible to operate and meet the needs of children,” he said.
Administrators were discouraged by the state of funding. Councilwoman Marcia Hole’s voice was broken when she described how “heartbreaking” it is that limited spending especially affects children with mental health issues and disabilities.
While the provincial government has pledged $ 110 million for mental health and additional help to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, Robertson said the Edmonton public will not be able to meet the needs of the public. students.
Keltie Marshall, downtown, has seven children enrolled in Edmonton Public Schools, five of whom need extra help. Surrounded by children (clockwise from top left) Elijah Gaunt, 17, Duncan Gaunt, 16, Maleah Gaunt, 16, Judah Marshall, 7, Bennett Marshall, 9 . (Provided by Keltie Marshall)
The news of the planned staff cuts is frustrating for Keltie Marshall, co-founder of Hold My Hand Alberta, which advocates for children with disabilities. Five of her nine children need extra help at school.
A growing number of students competing for a limited number of educational assistants, speech therapists, occupational therapists and other school professionals is making classrooms increasingly unsafe for some children, he said.
Now that the provincial government is giving home educating families access to some professionals, it is encouraging more parents to take their disabled children out of classrooms, and that is not right, Marshall said.
The proposed cuts are “defeatist” and will lead to a stressful summer for some parents who wonder if their children will have the help and supervision they need next fall, he said.
“One EA less is too much,” Marshall said. “We are already in a critical situation. We cannot lose any more support for our children.”
In an email, Katherine Stavropoulos, press secretary for Education Minister Adriana LaGrange, said the division was “extremely well funded”. He said the division received more funding than the formula had allowed for the past two years and that it has some cash in reserves.
The school division plans to use $ 10 million of its savings next year, leaving about $ 15 million in reserves.
The budget does not take into account the money promised by the provinces to implement a new curriculum and buy resources, new money for mental health or the potential cost of new contracts for teachers and other staff members.
Earlier this week, the Edmonton Catholic School Board also approved a $ 528 million budget that will add 10 new teaching positions. Officials said they received flat funding and expect enrollment growth of less than one percent. This board is getting about $ 6 million from the reserves to cover the rising staff costs.